Giving back to his second home
A West Park physician gives back to the hospital
Dr. Farooq Ismail was in his second year of medical school when he saw his future career direction. He was doing a rotation with a physiatrist – a doctor who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation. “I really enjoyed various facets of her clinical life that she shared with us,” he says. “They incorporated multiple areas of medicine I found intriguing- cardiology, orthopedic medicine, and neurology. Additionally, I liked the way she conducted herself with her patients.”
Several years later, as a Physiatry resident at West Park Healthcare Centre, he was offered an opportunity to join the Physiatry group at the facility. The size of the facility, the familiarity with the staff he worked with as a resident and the family atmosphere at the hospital, were all a draw that lead to him joining the group. “And the rest is history,” he says with a smile.
More than 20 years on, he continues to enjoy his work, which now focuses on stroke rehabilitation and adult spasticity management. West Park serves a wide geography in the GTA and areas north of the city. Dr. Ismail says it’s the allied healthcare staff members that truly set the program apart. “They are another set of eyes, ears, and hands to make sure we deliver the best possible care to our patients. They are simply fantastic –great at what they do and very dedicated.”
Shortly after he arrived at West Park, Dr. Ismail joined Dr. Chris Boulias in developing the Comprehensive Adult Spasticity Management Program. Spasticity is a neurological condition where muscles tighten, leading to involuntary spasms and contractions. It is often a symptom of conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, brain injury or multiple sclerosis. Spasticity makes it difficult for patients to care for themselves and for others to care for them. The West Park program, one of the larger programs in Canada, provides specialized interdisciplinary care, including botulinum toxin injections.
In addition to the clinic at West Park, Dr. Ismail and his colleague run an outreach clinic in Sudbury every three months. He also operates a private practice in Mississauga, and visits multiple nursing homes to ensure that patients who cannot get to West Park, receive appropriate care.
Dr. Ismail says the new building provides a brighter, more up-to-date space with state-of-the-art equipment. “I like what the facility has to offer and I believe there’s a lot more we can extract from it for our patients.” Moving forward, he hopes the new partnership with UHN will enable more leading edge research harnessing machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide more timely and appropriate care for the patient populations he serves. His team has already been meeting with their UHN counterparts. “We have much to share and much to learn”, he says. Ultimately the goal is to deliver a consistently excellent quality of care across the multiple sites.
Recently, Dr. Ismail made a financial contribution to the West Park Foundation Get Your Life Back campaign. “To whom much is given, much is expected”-a saying shared with his children often. He says it was the right time in my career and life to act on that very saying, and West Park tops the list. Giving is the simplest way to make a difference, whether it’s a monetary gift, offering time or sharing knowledge. “West Park is my number one – I’m here for most of my work week, it’s my second home, and the people I work with are truly like family. Why wouldn’t I give?”
